Operation Impending Doom
by Ziffy87
Summary: What happened to everyone from Operation Impending Doom One? Take a look through their eyes.
1. The Beginning of a Long Prologue

**A/N Okay, this being my first fanfiction ever, I please ask you review so I can reflect and improve. Just FYI, I'm going to write this as an actual chapter book/novel, so it might be long, I'm not sure yet... Anyway, enjoy!**

This was the last nerve. I couldn't hold in my anxiety anymore, so I nervously played with my fingers behind my back.

"Stop that," whispered my friend, Teck, over the murmuring crowd that seemed to be ever-growing. She was standing next to me on stage. We were in the only Convention Hall that was so far built on the recently conquered planet of Conventia. She was wearing the usual Invader outfit, hers being pink, and she was as thin as always. Teck was also much shorter than me, coming up to about my shoulders, even though she was considered very tall. Then again, there was only one other person in my history that was at my exact height. Only Tallest Red and Purple were taller than me, and they were only about one foot taller than I, maybe less. "If they catch you out of concentration, who knows what they would do!"

I stopped almost automatically, and whispered, "Right. Thanks." You're probably wondering why I was nervous. Well, my whole Irken life has been devoted to learning about, and eventually, conquering my own planet for the Tallest. Today, we were receiving our very own planet assignment to conquer, and I recently became nervous not because of my performance, but because of a certain Invader on the guest list. That Invader was none the less than that destructive squirt, Zim. My whole life was spent trying to evade him because of the damage he's done to my, and I'm sure everyone else's, life. Yet, there he stood, on the other side of the half-circle stage, at the end of the line that was in order of height.

He stood there with the biggest grin on his little green face, and he seemed totally ignorant towards the fact that he was standing in a room of people that hated him. Sometimes I almost feel bad for the little guy, but then I remember all the things that he has done. Personally, he was one little mishap away from being on my vendetta list. He'd be the one and only on that list.

Outside, you could hear the announcer say, "Please, remember where you parked, and report to the convention hall for the surprise announcement the glorious Tallest have in store!" Good, this meant it was starting soon.

The convention started off slow, and almost seemed to move in slow motion as Tallest Red and Purple descended from the ceiling with hundreds of lasers and confetti spewing out everywhere. Smoke poured from machines and there was antenna-splitting music. The crowd seemed to ripple in salute, as we ourselves did the same on the stage. Red and Purple touched down in the center of the stage and waved to the crowd that hissed with continued cheers that was only broken by the announcer introducing them, "Ladies and gentlemen, you're fearless leaders," he paused, "THE TALLESSSST!" His voice echoed over the cheering crowd as more confetti cannons set off on queue.

This went on for about another horribly long minute or so. Then, the music faded away and the Tallest spoke while the last of the sparkling confetti fell to the ground. Some of the shorter Irkens got away with bending down and collecting some of the, I'm sure, trillions that fell. Tallest Red began, "Welcome, Irken society! Now is the time for conquering! Now is the time for Operation Impending Doom!" He was responded by thousand of Irken cheers and screams. A giant holographic map appeared behind us.

Tallest Purple continued, "Yes, and you all are capable of such a wonderful task!" Again, screams and cheers. "However, I said you were _capable_. I never said any of you get to go, _yourselves_."

Silence.

"The Invaders behind us," continued Tallest Red. "Now, they passed their exams and get to go!" This time there were a couple of sarcastic claps. Their lack of enthusiasm made my organ twist with more worry. Zim existed with the need of praise.

Tallest Purple darted up to the front of the stage and yelled, "Do better next time, then!" It echoed across the convention hall and left an awkward silence. "On with the Great Assigning!" The Tallest both moved to the center and stood there, waiting for something… or someone.

"Well," asked Tallest Red, "Are you coming or not?" I felt a push on my back.

"He means you, go!" Teck shoved me and I quickly walked up in front of the tallest. They looked down at me without much effort.

"Well," said Tallest Red, "It seems you have grown…." He ended with an awkward tone.

"…Again," continued Purple, also in an awkward tone. I just smiled, failing to try and wash away the awkwardness. I could probably figure it out, but I think that the Tallest gave me the cold shoulder because of my height. I think that my height was becoming a threat to their life of luxury and power, because as soon as I became taller than them they would have to give all of that up.

Tallest Red didn't seem to take my smile as a good gesture. "Hmph," he started. "Invader Ziff, because of you're increased height, we've decided to give you a secret mission for, uhh…"

"A gift," finished Purple quickly. "Because of you're increased height we've decided to reward you with a secret mission."

"Yes, a gift!" It sure didn't seem like a reward with the fake positive tone they were using. Red looked at Purple as I stood there and smiled with anxiety and worry boiling up inside me again. Tallest Purple passed through a gap between the invaders and looked over the map.

"Hmmm…," I saw him fidget with something and press against the hologram's projector. I let my smile fade into a frown, ignoring the creases forming on my forehead. "Here!" He backed up to reveal a yellow sticky-note with the word 'Planet?' underneath a circle with a question mark in the middle.

I couldn't hold back the sarcastic question, "Planet…?"

"Oh, no one dare speak it's name," Red quickly answered. I saw Teck roll her eyes in the corner of my eye. I was suppressing a sigh, myself.

"Really," I asked, trying to sound as oblivious as possible. _I'll play along for now, I guess, _I thought. I wanted to say that out loud, but I didn't know how they would react, especially to a threat like me.

"Oh, yes," said Purple. "A very secret mission for the tallest of the _invaders._" He made 'invaders' sound like acid that was meant to burn my ears. He couldn't have proved my theory any more obviously. Red handed me a small holographic map and sent me on my way. As he shooed me away, something inside me snapped. As I turned to leave, I whispered so only the Tallest could hear my threat.

"Being the Tallest seems like fun."


	2. The Fall of a Once Great Empire

**A/N I'm not going to write any more A/Ns until there's something in the chapter I feel the need to explain and I don't just edit the problem. In this chapter or any other, please remember whenever religion is mentioned, it is meant to be a neutral belief; this book has no specific religion on Earth, but in Invader Zim, there was something they worshiped, a monkey or something...anyway, whenever you read something religous-like, it refers to that. Enjoy!**

I didn't bother looking back to see their reactions, I just smiled and went on my way. What could they do? If they did anything to interrupt the Great Assigning, or resorted to violence, what would become of their public image? I stood backstage listening to the rest of the Assigning.

Teck was assigned a real planet, didn't quite catch the name. Teck and I whispered backstage so no one else could hear us. "You do realize that you didn't get assigned a real planet, right?"

"Yeah," I answered. "I really don't care. If they want to play their little game, the least I could do is humor them. And, space goes on forever, right? There's got to be something out there with life for me to conquer."

"True," she said. "But, why would they play games with you? You're the third tallest Irken I know, including them."

"Exactly. They obviously see me as a threat to their wonderful lifestyle, so they're trying to get rid of me."

"Oh," she said slowly. "I never saw it like that…makes sense, though…if you think about it. Aren't you worried?"

"About what," I asked. "They can't get rid of me. I'm smart, and they know I was putting on an act out there. Even if they tried- even if they brainwashed me, I would make it back in one piece."

The conversation was ended when the next Irken joined the line backstage. He was followed by one Invader after another until Zim came back, positively glowing with happiness. _Hmph. Wonder what he was assigned._ I thought, sarcastically. We were given tips on how to gather information efficiently and blend in with the indigenous life. Basically, all the things we were taught before on Devastas. We were dismissed with a salute to our ships and told to proceed to Irk, where we would get various weapons and, if possible, other Irken help to pilot the bigger machines.

Teck and I were the first ones to arrive at the tall building where there were levels filled with weapons for each Invader. We stood in an elevator and I punched in my Irken I.D. number first. I arrived at my white, windowless floor and stood to face my friend for one last goodbye.

"Good luck, Invader Teck." I held out my hand for her to shake.

She grabbed my hand, squeezed, and said, "Best of luck." We both nodded as we let go and the door quickly snapped shut. I turned around to face the almost empty room, there was only one thing in the middle. The room was very small, about eight feet by eight feet. I walked over to the small black container in the middle, there was a note attached to it. The note read;

"G.I.G.A- General Information Gathering Assistance.

To whom it may concern,

G.I.G.A is a prototype S.I.R, or Standard Information Retrieval Unit.

She is programmed with a script for retrieving information. It was only tested for this purpose."

There was a separate note on the back;

"Invader Ziff,

Good luck figuring out what this contraption does.

We're keeping an eye on you.

- The Almighty Tallest."

Anyone else who read this would have seen this as a compliment of some sort, a general wish of 'good luck.' I sighed and picked it up by the handle on the top. It didn't look like any robot I'd seen, it looked like a basket…or a thermos. There was a small black button on the top that blended in with the rest of it. I pushed it and dropped the container in surprise when it turned into a small robot with empty white eyes.

"Giga reporting for duty," she said with a hand salute. Actually, now that I look, it didn't have any hands, just floating cones like it's feet. Her mouth was as white as her eyes, and disappeared whenever she was silent. There was a sudden vibration in the ground from someone testing their new equipment. "THREAT DETECTED!" She took her arm and pushed me swiftly onto all fours as she took a defensive position, facing the elevator.

"It's alright, that was just someone testing-" I was interrupted by a serious explosion coming from a floor far underneath mine. The building groaned and I started to slip towards the elevator as the building tipped and started to collapse. Before I got over my shock, Giga had already opened the elevator door and I slid into the wall. Giga looked at me with one makeshift eyebrow raised and lifted her arm. She brought it down hard across my face, and the stinging pain brought me back to my senses.

I hadn't been expecting that. It took me a second to blink away the shock, then I stood up against the wall of the elevator that was now serving as the floor. _Oh my god, I'm going to die. _The thought spun around in my mind as Giga quickly pushed elevator buttons that made a rhythmic song of hums. She stopped and there was a light, high-pitched tune that played around the elevator. The shock immediately returned as the elevator shot 'up' the shaft and exploded out of the roof, firing itself towards other buildings.

I gasped when I saw the shadow of a building blown away by a flash of light, and was replaced by smoke. This happened several times around the walls of the elevator as I watched them pass by through the shading in the walls. I jumped and covered my antennas when the elevator jolted to a stop and I fell to the original ground of the elevator.

Thousands of questions ran through my head, _Did we hit a building? Why don't I feel anything? Did my PAK take damage? Why do I still hear the zaps? Are those screams I hear? I can still see the shadows behind my eyes, are we still moving? What's that flapping noise? Where's Giga? I'm not going to know unless I open my eyes! But what if we crashed? Would I be able to open my eyes? _

Nervously, I slowly opened my eyes. We were still in the elevator, but it was facing upright again and we slowed to a crawl as we floated towards the ground. I stood up and shaking, walked passed Giga who was watching me closely. I pressed the door button and the doors flung open. I felt a sudden tight feeling on my leg and saw that Giga was tightly hugging my leg, still serious but she had a hint of fear in her eyes. We both stared at the events unfold before our eyes. A giant Frontline BattleMech was destroying Irk, blowing up buildings, adding flames to the ground where there were already flames. Before long, Irk was reduced from a wonderful utopia to a flat planet covered in animated flames.

Embers flew past us in the light breeze, and their light reflected of Giga, and it showed something written on her hand. I carefully bent down to see what it said, making sure to avoid the embers with my antennas. Giga watched my cautiously as her grip tightened the farther I bent over. Another ember went by and reflected a rejection stamp that was stamped on with a lighter shade of black.

I stood back up, patting her head around the small antenna and sighed, "It looks like we have something in common." I felt her nod against my leg.


	3. False Accusations

The elevator touched down somewhere where the fire had died down and there were only small ones. Giga stared up at me like she wanted to be carried. Maybe she was just sensitive to heat. I held out my hand and she put her 'hand' inside of mine and did a somersault in the air, landing on my shoulders. She sat down with her legs dangling off my shoulders and her arms grabbing gently to my head. Giga poked her head around to look around along with me at the ash piles, animated with thousands of shadows from the fire.

Giga cried out, "Life forms!" Her little arm pointed to the left and my gaze followed. She was right! There were three or four royal guards appearing over the horizon. With an uncontrollable smile on my face I started to sprint towards hope, and they took a defensive stance as they saw me coming at full speed.

I slowed down to a jog and shouted my name and rank. They heard me, and started running towards me. I ran to meet them halfway, but I stopped when Giga yelled, "THREAT DETECTED!" She jumped off my shoulders and into the warm ash, where only her eyes became visible. She took off towards the guards where they then held position, and shocked her with their long tasers.

"Giga!" Her body limply fell to the ground and the guards took off towards me again, stepping over her. Then, it dawned on me. They served the Tallest, they probably sent them after me. The guards were incredibly fast, already closing in on me. I darted the other way, tripping over ash, which slowed me down significantly. They grabbed me by my elbows, while a third ran in front of me and shocked me the same as Giga. I began to feel woozy, "Let me go…." I barley whispered the words before the second shock that put me out.

* * *

><p>I woke up, facing the Control Brain, my wrists and ankles held by shackled wires coming from behind the Control Brain. Tallest Purple and Red were standing on either side of me on separate platforms. Something was missing, but I was too groggy to think straight.<p>

"Invader Ziff, you are being put on trial for the actions such as threat against the Tallest," said the Control Brain. "How do you plead?"

It took me a while to form a sentence, "I plead…not guilty…."

"Processing accusation…." My PAK opened to let in a plug from the Control Brain so it could process the information from my memories. My memories. They were hazy, and I could only remember what I said to the Tallest. "Memories prove, GUILTY." _What? _I knew I was innocent! I pulled against the arms and they snapped free from the mechanical tentacles, leaving the claws on my wrists and ankles. I groggily limped as fast as my legs would go, and the Control Brain's arms retracted slightly before they whizzed around the door. My antenna picked up the movement and I ducked, the arms just missing my head.

"Grab her," yelled Tallest Red, "Don't let her get away!" His desperate tone and the feeling of the arms barley missing me gave me the adrenaline rush I so desperately needed. My speed increased to a jog, and I turned another corner while the arms whizzed into the intersection wall. I was too weak to fight, and knew I couldn't disobey the Tallest infront of the Control Brain. I pushed myself to quicken my pace until my legs burned with the effort, which still wasn't fast enough. Intense fear was my only source of energy.

The arms wedged themselves into the wall pretty good, which gave me about a thirty second head start. I turned another corner, but was stopped by my elbows. I couldn't see anymore, but I fought against whatever was grabbing me without much effect. I wriggled as hard as I could, my muscles screaming to stop, and my brain aching for rest. I ignored them as best I could, fighting with my fear for fuel.

I muscled out a scream for help, but there was no one to answer. No one alive on my side. I heard the distant zaps and crumbling from the arms breaking free of their barrier in the wall. They whizzed around the corner and re-attached themselves to the shackles and pulled me away from the restraining blurs. They whipped me around the corner, then hitting me against another, and another through the door. I began to lose the feeling in my right side as my left ached with pain in my bones. Returned to my previous trial room, I heard murmurs all around me as my forehead began to feel sticky and wet.

One was in a high, wispy voice, "…eliminate…threat!"

Another in a lower, calm voice, "…waste…perfectly…invader."

A third in a low, computerized voice, "…erase…begun…." I felt pressure on my back as two fuzzy shapes, one purple and the other red, moved in front of me. I lost any train of thought as I forgot where I was, who I was.


	4. Visit from the Doctor

I woke up on my back, laying on something hard, cold, and metallic. Although, the first thing I noticed was a thin, hissing plastic tube in my mouth. Then, as I fully regained enough consciousness I felt the sudden aching pain in my head and my skueedley-spooch.

I finally worked up enough energy to crack open my eyes a little and look around. I was laying on a glossy metal table in the center of a giant white dome. Above me were several sharp, rusty, giant surgical tools hanging from the ceiling, and below me, the white tile floor was stained dark blue, almost navy, the color of dried blood. Lastly, to my right and left, there were several metal trays that held smaller, sharper, and cleaner tools. They were standing on legs about four and a half feet tall, just coming short of the table. My wrists, ankles, torso, and neck were tightly bound to the table. The tube that was fed through my mouth, probably into my organ, wound somewhere under the table. There was also a monitor that gained speed with every hiss that came from underneath the table, behind my head.

"Oh, wow I'd never expected you to actually wake up!" I was startled by the sudden echoing, mid-toned voice that only added to my headache. Probably male. "Tell me, who do you think you are?"

"What? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hey, I'm not giving you attitude, just answer the question." There was the echoing sound of shoes lightly tapping against the tile floor.

"I'm-" I stopped when I realized- I had no idea. I could tell he waited for me to answer before he would have come out, so I thought about it, "…I'm…I'm…." I sighed in defeat after about a minute of deep thought. "I don't know…," I whispered.

"Gooooooood!" I jumped when I suddenly looked where the monitor was, and he was there. How had I not noticed that before? He was very tall and looked the same as me…whatever species we were. He had dark green eyes and wore a long white lab coat, and strangely, his antennas were colored a very faint green color. He had teeth that were filed into points and a thin white tongue. His voice and look met the evil scientist cliché, and he had a twisted smile to match. "My name is Doctor Lech!" He moved very rhythmically, almost like a snake. From what I knew about the word "Lech," this guy certainly didn't fit the description.

"Where am I," I asked. "What is this tube doing?" It was very difficult to speak with the thing in my mouth, but that's what I heard myself say.

"You're in my lab! Isn't it beautiful! I love the colors, don't you?" The weird thing about that sentence: he was completely serious. He was soon lost in his own world, looking around the colorless lab, and hummed joyfully. "Oh," he said, remembering that I was there. "The tube is so I can harvest your organ!" He doubled up in a laughing fit that sounded completely mad. "You took forever to heal before I could!"

Okay, that was the last straw. I thrashed against the cuffs, but hesitated when I felt a serious case of déjà vu. He grabbed one of the tools on the tray to my right that looked like a small exacto-knife. I finally got my hand to slip free, but he grabbed it. His grip was strong and tight and he was laughing madly again. I managed to use his grip against him and rip free from the other very weak cuffs that bound me to the cold metal table. I ripped the knife out of his hand and pointed it at him. "Take it out now," I ordered. He just laughed some more and acted like it was all some fun game set up especially for me.

"You lose." He ran over to a big computer on the wall and pressed one of three big red buttons. "This one's for the drill!" His laughter turned into evil giggling as one of the rusty hanging instruments started rapidly spinning, and shaking with the speed. It was two white-hot coils wrapped around each other to form a sharp drill shape. I ripped the tube out through my throat -gagging as I did- and threw it over the table so I could move freely enough to run for my life. Being lucky me, my legs were weaker than I realized and I tripped over my foot. On the ground, I ducked the swooping screw, holding my antenna to shield them from the white-hot burn. I stood up and faced my enemies: an insane scientist, and his many tools. That was against me, whoever I was, with my small knife. My organ was returning back to its normal state, but that caused unbearable amounts of pain, but I sucked it up for the sake of surviving. He slammed his balled up fingers on the second switch and his eyes widened in excitement.

I limped as fast as I could toward him while dodging the screw. I my haste I had lost my small knife, I didn't know what the thing on my back was for, so I was forced to use my claws and teeth. It felt like they should not be used in any situation, but I had to. I jumped on him and swiped my claws across his face.

"OW!" He smashed his fist down on the third and biggest button. "That kinda hurt." A giant blue eye with yellow in the center dipped down and looked me over like it was searching for something. I jumped off of him. It went up to my shoulder and made a rejecting _boop_, and I jumped away from it, just in case that sound meant it was going to shock me or something. The eye swerved towards me wherever I hopped to, and getting fed up with it I punched it in its blue center with my fist and quickly jumped away. Waiting for a reaction, I could see the crazy Dr. Lech having some slight worried reactions of his own. Suddenly the eye started to shake violently and I ran away from it, while the Dr. hid behind the control panel.

I was interrupted in my search for a hiding place when the entire contraption on the ceiling started to vibrate and slowly poured out a black light like blood. When It swurled around my ankles it felt as light as air. The substance confused all my senses to the point where I instinctively shut my eyes and covered my antenna with my arms and hands. Almost immediately after, the whole room had succumbed to the blackness, and through my deep purple eyes, everything was negative colors.

"Wow," said the Dr. in amazement and he paused to look around. "You _really_ screwed up this one!" He smiled and walked towards me. All our weapons had disappeared when I shut my eyes and there was no real rational way to deal with him, or defend myself, so I just stood there. "You've opened up a Negative Zone."

]~~~~|~~~~[

"_**Negative Zone**_"


	5. Forever Changed

"_**Negative Zone.**_"

]~~~~|~~~~[

*Third Person- Lech*

The scientist, Lech, stared in all seriousness at the smaller Irken Invader Ziff. She had said the two words in a voice he honestly hadn't thought he'd hear again. He'd only seen it with his own eyes once before, but the Invader's sudden strange behavior was easily explained. When an Irken is exposed to a certain element, it will become completely dependent on it's PAK until certain changes are made in their subconscious(A wave of white electricity slowly passed behind Lech's antenna.) Until the changes are fully made, the brain sets aside energy to protect the body from harm; this of course making the subject possibly the most powerful being in the entire universe. When everything ended, the body would reject the PAK and assume control of the one thing that the Irken was meant to control.

This little Irken had the eternal luck of actually finding her element, but he never guessed that the Negative Zone was an element.(Another wave to his left.) The only other person that he knew of that had this extraordinary luck was his brother. The reason Lech became a scientist was mainly to study, further, on the amazing Irken system. He was going to find out himself how the skueedley-spooch both sent out nutrients and digested food all at once, until she caused all this trouble. Although, to him, this was equally interesting, maybe even greater. Maybe it added to his interest that she may not survive, like his brother.

]~~~~|~~~~[

*Ziff*

I could feel something inside of me, changing me, but what scared me most was… I had no control… at least it was almost over….

]~~~~|~~~~[

*Third Person- Lech*

He watched as the Invader's PAK vibrated and buzzed for a couple of seconds before falling to the ground, followed by her knees. She used her fingers to balance herself as she stood up, assisted by several white waves of electricity. She stared at him with lifeless eyes as the entire Zone absorbed into her. Her posture straitened and her complete appearance altered for a second. The flash of her changed appearance only lasted for a very brief moment, but her natural colors turned negative and her eyes were blue with a glimpse of black sparks flashing through them. The doctor saw this _excellent _opportunity to grab her but he couldn't bring himself to interfere. Although, this did give him an idea.

He grabbed a lever cautiously, because the lifeless eyes of the Irken followed him wherever he shifted to. He slowly wrapped his two lengthy fingers around the red ball that sat atop of the lever and pulled backwards slowly. The lever stopped with a click and the tiles under and around the Invader's feet snapped away, and she fell until her arm snapped out and grabbed onto the ledge. She quickly whipped the rest of her body upward and out of the hole, doing a somersault in the air. As she almost landed, the Doctor quickly thrust the lever forward and several more tiles slid out from under her feet before she landed.

The Doctor sighed in relief as she fell to an un-known destination. She hadn't learned everything about her powers…yet.

]~~~~|~~~~[

*Ziff*

I must have cheked that all of my fingers and toes were accounted for a hundred times before I decided to try and climb out of where ever I was once more. But, once again, it was a failure. I slid my back down the wall and sat there. It all was a blur, one second I could feel something as if it was moving inside of me and changing me, the next I was down in this dark place that I couldn't climb out of. Now that I think of it, it all sounds like I went insane, and this is all some crazy description of my sanity. There was one thing, though that I was certain of: I, whoever I was, will not go crazy - _am_ not crazy.

Enough ranting, I groped the wall for something, a light switch maybe? After a while of not finding anything I realized that this wall went on for a very long time. I stomped my foot on the tile beneath me to see how long it took for the echo to come back, because obviously there was nothing to absorb the sound.

One. Two. Three. Four…Five?

Ok, no echo should take that long. I snapped my fingers in frustration and was taken by surprise when white sparks flew from my fingers. Cool. Actually, it wasn't cool when I realized that I shouldn't have made noise at all. The short snap of light revealed that I was face-to-face with giant hungry rats.


	6. Mysterious Findings

**A/N in this chapter when it states anything to to with religion, it refers to whatever you believe in, so this book has no religous point of view. Enjoy!**

I stood there in the darkness. I could feel their breath run across my feet in whispers. Groping the structure behind me, I felt my way several feet until I felt the edge and then another connected to it. It was a building. _Oh thank god, _I thought. _Please, please let there be someone who can help inside!_ Their breath across my boots never left nor came closer as I tiptoed against the wall until I found an opening, and slipped inside. Slamming the door, I noticed a faint violet light that lit up everything in the room. Looking around, it was all like Dr. Lech's lab, but this felt more comfortable.

In my current safe haven I discovered that despite all of the tubes and computers, there wasn't much too where I was. I had already reached the other end of the room. The wall was smooth and cold, and went on like that for a couple of short feet where there were a series of buttons on the wall. They were labeled on the wall, some written or crossed out:

(G-2): Rat Trap - _Current -X_

(G-1): Observatory - X

(9): Radio Comm. -X

(8): Lab 3 – _Surveillance_

(7): Lab 2 – _Testing/Experiments_

(6): Lab 1 – _Planning W.D._

(5): Garage

(4): Holding Cell - X

(3): Home

(2): Electricity Grid - X

(1): Life Support - _X_

"Rat Trap" was the floor I was on, "Current." It was crossed out, so that was probably why it was so dark. I pressed the glass "3" because "home" sounded the most appealing right now. The wall next to me opened halfway, revealing a small elevator waiting for me to step inside. With both feet inside I jumped when the doors snapped shut quickly. While I was airborne, several white bolts of electricity bolted from me and electrocuted the door, leaving it a charred mess. _Oops._ Suddenly, several bright lights lit up the elevator as we reached level G-1. Through squinted eyes I watched as small robots swiftly moved from somewhere behind a light, cleaned the doors, and left through the same spot. The robots had a strange logo on them that gave me a mix of unexplainable nostalgia and pure anger. I stayed unmoving the rest of the ride, trying to adjust my eyes to the bright lights.

After a short while, the elevator halted to a stop on the third floor, "Home." Cautiously, I stepped out and scanned the room. It looked comfortable, actually. The room had a big couch with a monkey above, and a television in front. I ducked behind the couch when a very small thing like me walked in.

"Computer? Why is the elevator here?" His voice didn't quite match his height….

The computer responded with a low pitched, computerized voice, "Master Skeet, there is another Irken in the Base."

"Why didn't I hear about this earlier?" So _that's _what we were, Irkens.

"I am programmed to report the Rat People's presence."

"Grr," He growled in frustration. "Computer. Search level three of any signs of life besides my own."

"Processing…." I ducked my head and held my breath as a red line swept over me and the rest of the room. "One extra life force behind furniture item 115." The small Irken walked over and looked at me. Even on my knees with my head ducked down he met my eye height in the dark corner. He wore a pink invader outfit to match his eyes, and he was rounder in shape.

"Who are you," he asked with a calm voice. I wasn't sure whether or not to answer him, but I thought I had to at some point.

After about a minute of silence I said, "I'm…not sure." He snapped his fingers and a thick computer cord circled around the room and hit me in the upper back, knocking me over. "Ouch…" He gave a long "Hmmm" while he looked at my back that fell into the light when I toppled over.

"No PAK?" He held out a hand to help me up and said, "Come into the light. I want to see your face." I grabbed the hand lightly and stood up out of the shadows. Standing up, he probably came to my knee. He looked up at my face and his eyes widened. "Ziff? What are you doing here?"

I stood there, silent for a while and asked in a quiet voice, "Umm…do I know you?" He just looked at me with a strange look on his face and then he suddenly lit up. He tightened his grip on my hand and pulled me around the room and into a hall. "-Hey!"

He spoke but didn't slow down, "Don't worry, I can figure out what happened!" He whipped around one corner, then another so fast I almost fell. By the time we stopped, my back was stiff from bending down so low. We must have walked up an incline because we were now on floor 7. A giant '7' was lightly painted on the wall. He let go of my hand but continued running around the room filled with tubes with a chair in the middle, and computers along the walls. He was giggling excitedly as he ran up to me with some sort of hat connected to a tube, and quickly used legs from the "PAK" on his back to reach my height, and plopped it on my head.

"What's-" I was going to ask him what it was but he quickly hopped over to a nearby computer and worked away at the keys. After a minute or so he stopped typing, pressed the hologram one last time and he ran over to a different computer.

"Sit down," he said. That was an easy order to command, giving that there was only one chair in the entire room. I sat down as he pressed a button and a giant holographic screen appeared in front of me and he hopped next to me. Another smaller chair appeared next to me out of the ground and lifted him up along with it. It raised to about the height of my seat, but the back missed the height of mine by a foot or so. He pulled out a bag of puffy, white and yellow snacks…they smelled very good, whatever that was.

My attention was shifted back to the screen as I heard buzzing coming from my helmet and a picture started to develop on the screen from a fuzzy blur, to a very clear white color. Suddenly there was a sharp pinch in my head followed by many more to the point where I instinctively wanted to throw the helmet to get as far away as possible. After a while, the sharp pinched turned to a fuzzy, prickly feeling and an image appeared on the screen. It had a very distinct déjà vu felling to it….


	7. A Lifetime Summarized

]~~~~|~~~~[

*Third Person (Video)*

In an entire room lined with tubes with small faces on them, one of them smiles with an alerting hum. An unfeeling robot arm whizzes around and unscrews the small test tube, breaking it open so a small green alien flops onto the cold metal. The arm attaches a small PAK to it and an electric shock jumpstarts it's organs as it springs to life. "WELCOME TO LIFE IRKEN SMEET," booms the computer's voice to the thick-eyelashed smeet. The smeet happily skips over to the center of the room where a hole quickly appears and the smeet slides down a slide that leads to a seat in front of a computer.

Meanwhile, shortly before the smeet went off to the slide, another smeet is cracked open. In response to the computer's repeated welcome, the smeet latches to the arm and says, "I love you, Unfeeling Robot Arm."

The first smeet is classified as slightly malfunctioned, but highly likely to succeed in invading other planets. The malfunction was minor, but the computer was unable to calculate it's final height, and the screen had constantly changing numbers, ever increasing. Disappointed but still happy, none the less, the smeet continues to another slide, but while sliding she can hear the faded screams of a dozen smeets following the mumbling of the smeet after her. She gasped as a wall of fire started to pour down the shaft and she grabbed her antenna to protect her from the extreme heat, but the wall of fire burned out before it reached her.

She stared up the shaft with fear and concern when she was dropped into another area. The smeet stood up and followed the line that she was dropped at the end of, but still glanced occasionally at the shaft. After she started walking a couple steps, another boy smeet dropped out of the slide and made her flinch. The smeets stared at each other, one with fear, the other with one eyebrow raised. He walked around her and followed the line, ignoring her behind him.

A while later they arrive at a fork in the line, where they sort the smeets into two different learning groups. There were two doors that read "Invader" to the right, and "Other" to the left with more splitting lines inside both of them. The first smeet followed "Invader", then "Elite," but stopped at the crossroad between "Perfect" and "Special Needs." The other boy smeet skipped along into the "Perfect" side, and frightened of him, she went into the "Special Needs" door. She calmed down a little when she realized that she actually had to go through that door.

Before they came through the final door, they were scanned and given names, but also checked if they were supposed to be there in the first place. She walked through a light turned deep purple as she walked through with a _bing_. The walls in the thick door lit up with words, and a green checkmark above. The words read, "Invader - Elite - Special Needs - Female - NAME - **Ziff**." She smiled at the name that glowed the same deep purple as her eyes. Ziff closed her eyes and skipped through the rest of the doorway, but froze mid-skip and her eyes flew open. The cause? The door next to her was suddenly full of flame rubble, and a very loud boom. The explosion sent a crack through her name and a giant hole following, swallowing the thing that made her forget all her troubles. She ran back to the hole in the wall and the dust quickly faded away, revealing the pink name, "**Zim**."

For the next several hundred years, Ziff suffered through all of Zim's fiery mishaps, losing everything that she got connected to, or gained happiness from. Even other Irkens. In fear that he would die in a fiery explosion like her other friends, she had to explain why she could no longer be seen with her best friend. That was the boy Irken that came about to the height of her knees, named Skeet.

Later, about forty-five years, after learning was over for the day, she met an Irken that managed to hide in the crowds for his whole life. He avoided being put in the "Special Needs" section, or training at all. They hung out in secret, gaining more and more attached to each other. Neither of them figured out what was wrong with them, which gave them more to talk about. Since Irkens had lost the need to ever get emotionally intertwined with others, nothing about their kind of relationship was ever taught, demonstrated, or let alone heard of. In her spare time, Ziff looked in the Great Irken Library for anything on, well, anything, and came across a history on Irken behavior. The book entitled 'Irken History, Before It Became Technology' read in the seventieth chapter:

"70:

Before finding another, more efficient way to produce more Irken to add to the armada, Irkens were less about invading, and more about finding love. Although, love is never given to an Irken from birth to the time they die, some Irkens find it but can never explain it. Allow me to explain…"

The book goes on to explain that hand-to-hand combat is only instinctively used against the one that you are attached to, and something called a "kiss." After re-reading this chapter several times, Ziff finally figured out how and went right over to him after the teachings. After a while, she finally gained the confidence, and much to Xid's surprise, Ziff pressed the skin between her mouth and eyes against his. She stopped, but he pressed against her again, and they continued this for hours, desperate to press harder and harder against the part of the face they thought was there for no reason. Afterwards, they just sat in the abandoned, underground cave that they hid, hands intertwined.

Years later, Ziff was bringing snacks to their hiding place to celebrate officially becoming an Invader, when she found it engulfed in flames, along with the surrounding buildings. She dropped the bags, and sweet drinks as she, again, heard the drawn out laugh of Zim. That laugh followed every destruction that took away her happiness. This time, and this time alone, she felt tears fall down her cheeks. She never said goodbye to the one person she could connect with. The one person who she could stand up straight, and still be at eye-level with. The only person she ever kissed.

When the flames cleared, there was nothing left but ashes of the house they had built underground. She was sure that Xid was somewhere in the charred mess, he had never come out before. As she left, the world they were on seemed so much bigger, crushing her under it's gravity. She felt so alone. It was all Zim's fault.

The next day she didn't feel like moving, eating, or just doing anything. Later in the day, she received a hologram message that invited her to the first Operation Impending Doom. She decided that she couldn't just sit there forever, so she stood up, put on a straight face, and went to fulfill her set purpose in life. To conquer the universe.


	8. The Real Story Begins

]~~~~|~~~~[

*First Person - Skeet*

"Wow," I said at the end of the video. I also caught my jaw drop. "You put up one heck of a fight against the Tallest. Oh, and when you used the Negative Zone power in that awesome voice! That was so COOL!" I paused when she didn't respond. "Sorry about Xid, Ziff." I looked over, and she had her head hung over, eyes closed, with a bank expression on her face. "Ziff…?" I shook her to wake her up, but nothing happened. I groaned and took off the memory-transferring helmet and ran over to the computer to shut it off.

]~~~~|~~~~[

*Ziff*

I jumped in my seat when I regained consciousness, but calmed down when I realized that I was still in Skeet's base. I looked around, and found that the screen was gone and I wasn't wearing the helmet anymore. "Skeet?" My words were lost in a boom that followed a giant door that fell in front of me. It was plain, but looked too big for the room, but the ceiling seemed to be several stories higher, just to fit the door.

Very confused, I walked over to see what it led to, and with each step I took it, along with the room, began to shrink. By the time I reached the door, it was about an inch shorter than me. In tiny letters on a tiny plaque it read "MIND" in bold black engravings. When I turned the knob and opened the door, I was blasted with wind and light. When my eyes adjusted, I couldn't hold back a gasp in awe at all of the things that fit behind this small door.

There were rolling hills, and warm breezes with four other doors like the one I just walked through. The air smelled like rain and grass. I walked to the door farthest to my left and read the plaque: "M = Memories." I guessed that the other letters of "mind" stood for other things on the other doors. When I opened the door and walked through, the door disintegrated behind me, leaving me behind. I was left in a dark room where the only visible thing was a small screen. The sweet smell of outside was replaced by a musky, underground smell. On the screen were the words "Hide?" then below, "Yes / No." I touched the "No." As if it was water, the air rippled from my finger and through the place I was in, bringing light wherever it passed.

I chased it and touched the air anywhere the light didn't reach, until it was identical to the rolling hills from before, and there were four other doors. I realized that the four doors were the three others from before, and the door I entered from. I exited through the small door again, feeling some sense of accomplishment.

]~~~~|~~~~[

I woke up in the chair, while Skeet was at a nearby computer. I moaned, "Skeet? When did I fall asleep?"

"Huh?" He turned. "Oh, you're awake." He thought over my question with a "hmm" and said, "Probably around the part where you go to the convention, or whatever."

"The convention for the Great Assigning?"

"Yeah! Do you remember anything?" My mind flashed back to the mind-hills.

"Ohh," I moaned, rubbing my face. "I remember everything." I held my face in my hands. He looked at me, confused.

"Well, isn't that a good thing? Why the long face?"

"Because, I forgot about Zim, Teck, you, the Tallest, Xid, Giga, all of those people. I feel like someone just dropped the biggest bomb on me."

"Wait," he said. "Teck? She's the one who died when that building collapsed, right?"

"Yeah," I said, "I never actually saw, but that's what happened."

"Oh…," I could tell he didn't know what else to say. I suddenly came up with the beginning of a plan.

"Skeet?"

"Yeah?"

"You have a ship, right?"

"Yeah, I have mine in the garage."

"Great. I need to get back to Irk, and then to a planet off the map. They've probably started the re-building process on Irk by now."

"Started?" He looked at me, concerned. "Ziff, how long do you think you were gone?"

I thought about it, "Maybe a month or so."

He paused, thinking over his words. "Ziff…it's been seventy-two years. You've been gone so long, the last time I heard anything from the Tallest, they thought you'd been long dead." I was shocked. _Seventy-two years?_ I remembered the words that Dr. Lech had said, "_You took forever to heal until I could._" But wait! Maybe this is a good thing! If they think I'm dead, I can sneak in, grab Giga, and leave without any suspicions! This is great!

Skeet saw my change in emotions, "Something wrong?"

"No," I said. "No! This is great! I have a whole plan now, and it'll be so easy!" I picked him up over my head and spun in a circle, laughing.

He smiled, "Can I help?" He started to get very excited.

"Of course!" I spun around one last time and let him down, clapping my hands in excitement.

"What's the plan?"

"Ok, so they think I'm long dead, right?"

"Right…?"

"If I go back to Irk on your ship, they won't know I'm there. So, I can sneak in, get Giga, and sneak back out without any suspicions!"

"Oh, so I'm smuggling you in?" His happy tone was washed away. "What about the new scanners they put in? I'm pretty sure that they'll see you in my ship with those. I'm also sure that the only names programmed into the database is yours and Zim's, the last time I checked."

I thought about that, "Hmm, how do these machines work?"

"Well, they program you're Irken ID numbers into the database. When they pick up your PAK in the scan, they match up the IDs and arrest you." He looked at me for a minute while I tried to give him the hint with my expression. Skeet just looked at me funny, "What's wrong with your faaaa- OHH! You don't have a PAK!"

I laughed, "Yep. Besides all of the gadgets, I'm glad that thing is gone."

"Let's go. Right now. I've been meaning to get off of this planet sooner or later, anyway."

"Why? What happened?"

"Lost the Holding Cell, shortly after power. With the power went the communication and life support. Then later, the trap I'd set for the Rats had basically collapsed, along with the ceilings everywhere but my home, and thankfully the garage. Now, I'm running my home's electricity on emergency batteries that are almost drained."

I stopped to think over my words, but decided to just not say anything. The happy mood was washed away to total seriousness. "Come on, let's go."


	9. Last Friend is Gone

We took the elevator down to the garage. The room was huge and lined with ships, some smoking and others reduced to rubble. "What happened in here," I asked. "I thought you said you had a ship."

"I do," he said. "Just be patient and follow me." He lead us past ship after ship until we finally got to the end of the room. There was a giant glass dome covering a lone pink ship. Chips of ceiling rained down, deflecting off of the top. He smiled and said, "Here she is, still as good as new." Some more ceiling chips rained down on the glass. Skeet walked over and tapped the dome and it rose, shaking as it went up to the ceiling, blocking more ceiling from falling onto the ship.

"It's in really good shape. How long has it been down here?"

"Like I said before, seventy-two years." He opened the hatch and hopped inside, holding out a hand with a smile, offering to help me up. I took it and hopped in. For sitting for seven years, the thing was surprisingly comfy. Despite my size, I could easily fit with plenty of room to spare in between the ceiling and I. The seats were made of some very soft foreign material, and the controls placed in front of us.

"Wow," I said admiring it. "Where did you get this kind of ship?" I'd never seen such room and comfort in a ship ever before. Now that I think of it, it was very odd that he had so many ships in the first place. "And all of the others," I quickly added.

He started the engines and they silently vibrated. "Shortly after I passed the test, they gave me options of what I could do based on my talent and, of course, height. It was either an Invader with high piloting support, or a service Irken serving drinks." If he was much taller than he was now, he could have easily passed for an elite pilot.

He pulled a lever and we started to rise, exiting through one of the many holes in the ceiling. As we exited the building I squinted, adjusting to the dim morning light. The rats I barley saw last night were gone, and you could see the entire city from this height. It was a short and small city the building we came from looked like an old warehouse that was crumbling along with the rest of the city. On top of the warehouse was the Irken symbol etched into the roof, only reminisces of it were left. Once we were above the highest building Skeet pushed a purple button marked "Hyper Speed." The planet quickly disappeared from view and millions of stars passed the window a second. We were going almost five million miles an hour but the pressure of our speed hadn't effected us in the cockpit.

We were stopped just outside of Irk's atmosphere when Skeet told me to hide in the back; the second part in our plan. I climbed over the seats and huddled into a dark corner. The back wasn't as comfortable as the front but it was a trunk so I had no complaints. Skeet slowly pulled up to a booth marked "Examination Booth." There was a male Irken manning the station who asked Skeet for some identity. Skeet told him his Irken ID and he typed it into something out of my line of vision. After searching for a couple seconds, he nodded and asked Skeet if he had any luggage in his ship. When he declined, the Irken waved him on with a "Good day."

We passed through a red search line and it beeped once when it swept across Skeet and his PAK. It passed over me silently. Once we were about a mile above the city I crawled back in front to see what the re-built Irk looked like. To my surprise, it looked exactly the same. The entire planet was covered in pink and purple buildings that were tall enough to touch the sky. Thin roads and sidewalks wound through the buildings. I tried to think where they would keep Giga, if she was still alive. After a while of thinking in circles I asked Skeet what he thought.

"Giga's the little black robot I saw in the video, right?"

"Right," I said. "Where would you think she'd be?"

"If she's not already long burned away with the garbage," I remembered her blending into the ashes, only her eyes visible, "than the Tallest kept her as a trophy of some sort." I thought about it, and it made perfect sense. The tallest hated me so much; why not keep a trophy to remember how I fell?

"It makes perfect sense, but where do the tallest live, again?"

"Over there." He pointed to the biggest building on Irk. I suddenly remembered seeing the building on the news and on any other station that mentioned the Tallest. We silently hovered in the air, cloaked by a built-in cloaking device. Skeet opened the hatch and he and I peered over the edge at the security. It was another scanner like in the atmosphere. There was a group of tourists in the front, the Tallest were most likely on the Massive. A lot of them were wearing caps, but I couldn't see what they said. They were being sold at an electronic kiosk off to the side.

"Ok, the only way we can get in there is if we blend in with the crowd of tourists down there," I said. Skeet agreed and closed the hatch. He landed on a nearby building. It was an office, surprisingly; I didn't know Irk had workplaces. We left the ship and took the elevator to the bottom floor, slipping in and out of crowds until we were outside. Skeet used what money he had to buy two hats and t-shirts with the Tallest's faces on them. We slipped them on and blended into the crowd just before they entered the mansion. The tour guide handed out an outline of the tour and started to describe the many metallic columns and ceilings. Skeet and I looked around and he finally came up with a question.

"Out of curiosity, where would Almighty Tallest Red and Purple keep things like trophies or things to remind them of one of their glorious victories?" He sounded like a pure Tallest-lover.

The tour guide answered; "That would be the trophy room. There will be a free-roam five minutes for everyone to explore any of the select rooms shortly. It's just after lunch." She looked at me standing next to Skeet. Her face flickered to shock as she realized I was at least twice her hight.

"According to this sheet, lunch starts in twenty minutes," I whispered to Skeet, ignoring the guide's expression. He nodded and we continued into the grand kitchen and the great dining hall. Both were very nice, I have to say. They had to be the nicest out of the entire house so far. With a clap of her hands, we were dismissed by the tour guide to lunch in the great dining hall. We were served a simple plate of doughnuts and I received many compliments from my neighbors admiring my height. I laughed and thanked them, trying to act as normal as possible. They looked at me funny as well, like they were expecting me to lash out on them, since they were all half my height at the most.

After a while when the clock was ticking towards the end of lunch, people desperately shoved food into their pockets. Skeet and I, who had recently finished them all, curiously raised an eyebrow. Why were these people acting so desperate for food? I looked at Skeet and he just shrugged. The tour guide walked in from the kitchen to see all of our plates cleared and smiled.

"It's time for the five minutes of exploration!" She clapped and everyone stood up, Skeet and I hurriedly walked through the hallways searching for the room on the map marked "Trophies." I almost walked past it, but Skeet pulled me back by the hem of my skirt. The giant metallic doors were open and the tall walls were lined with thousands of shiny trophies and polished knick-knacks. I looked around with my advanced Irken eyes and saw, there on a top shelf, was Giga.

"There," I loudly whispered while tapping Skeet's shoulders. I pointed to Giga, as shiny as ever, all the way on the top shelf in her canister form. It was about three times my height.

"How do we get it?" I looked down at Skeet, forming a plan. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm going to toss you."

"WHAT? It's, like, 35 feet high!" His words echoed across the room and into the hall.

"Shhh, I'll catch you. Come on." I picked him up before he could run away. "I'll throw you and you grab her. None of these other ones are latched down." He stopped wriggling with a "humph" and crossed his arms.

"Fine, hurry up and toss me." He blushed and I tossed him, he grabbed Giga and I caught them both, bending at the knees.

"See? That wasn't so hard."

"A 'thanks' wouldn't hurt." I laughed and put him down, he just scowled at me.

"Fine, thanks grumpy pants." I jokingly stuck a tongue out at him. He just rolled his eyes and tossed Giga to me.

"You haven't changed a bit, Ziff." He walked out of the room and started back to the group.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He just ignored me and told me to leave out of the front door as he distracts the guide with more questions. I slip out and wait for him on the side of the building. He met me there in about a minute or so. "Ok," I said. "Next I need a Universal Positioning System."

"A UPS?" He pointed to the office building. "We could probably 'borrow' one from there," he said using air quotes. I agreed and we both walked inside, being greeted by a red-eyed receptionist checking her fingers.

"What'd ya' need," she asked in an uncaring voice.

"Do you have any UPSs? We need to borrow one," I asked. Without looking she grabbed one from a stack behind her.

"Return this in about a year at the latest." She looked me in the eye, standing on her desk to reach the height. "Don't return it and we'll come get it from you." She stared at me in a way that made it a threat.

"Understood," said Skeet from underneath the desk. We rode the elevator to the roof and boarded the Voot Cruzer. Or, at least I did.

"Aren't you getting in? What about your mission?"

"Ziff, I can't go back there. Did you see that place? I'd rather stay here at the office than be slaughtered by the Rats."

"You're not thinking strait, Skeet. Just come to the new planet with me."

"Ziff, I'm thinking perfectly strait." He patted the ship. "I'm sure gonna miss her."

"Come on, Skeet," I said getting angry at him. _He can't leave now! _I thought. I held out a hand for him. "You're the best Irken Pilot I've ever seen! You can't leave your ship!" I was shouting now, not caring if anyone heard. _I can't lose him; he's the last friend I have! _

"Thank you, but no." He gave me a soft smile. "It's your mission. I'm going to miss you." I started to panic; common sense was no longer linked with my actions. I jumped and sprinted towards him, scooping him up, and running back to the ship.

"I'm not leaving you here, Skeet! You don't belong in an office cubicle; you belong in ships conquering other planets!" I was shaking him so hard that he began to get dizzy. I snapped back under control and put him down inside the ship with me. "I'm sorry, Skeet. I didn't mean to shake you." I brought my hand down to my side and hit the button on Giga's head. She sprung to life and I didn't realize at first.

Skeet groaned and said, "Ziff, I've made up my mind. It doesn't mean you'll lose me forever. We've said goodbye once before, right?" I stared at him in realization as he groggily climbed out of the ship, his foot hitting buttons. He didn't seem to mind, none of them would do anything if the engine's or battery was on, which neither of them were.

"Careful," I whispered.

"Danger Imminent," said Giga. I figured she just felt the protection need as I did. Skeet's foot skimmed several buttons, coming close to the ejection button. My breath caught as he turned on the engines.

"Skeet, you need help," I said, leaning closer, hand raised slightly. With the rate I shook him, he couldn't hear the engines.

"Danger!" Giga's tone was sharpening. She jumped, one hand leaning on the dash to block me from Skeet. He was halfway over the edge. If I hadn't shaken him, he would have swung over easily and now he needed help. I reached over Giga, reaching towards him to help, but she brought her other hand down hard onto mine. Halfway over, his foot could only reach one button; the hatch.

I panicked as I realized it would cut him in half. Giga had pinned me down at this point so all I could do was yell. "Skeet! You idiot, you're going to cut yourself in half!" He slowly turned towards me, his foot coming closer to the button. "STOP!" I felt so hopeless; all I could do was scream for him to stop, but just as quickly as everything else had happened, the hatch came down.


	10. Filthy Earthanoids

**A/N Alrighty then... either she goes crazy, or she is showing Irken characteristics in this chapter...is there really a difference? On another note, you're about to see why I rated this story M just in case something like this falls under the category.**

Silence.

Silence was all I could muster up. The hatch had come down on the exact center of Skeet, splitting him in half, the bottom half squirting blue blood all over the cockpit. The upper half was outside, being propelled across the roof towards the edge by the force of the blood. It stopped just before the edge, but rolled off the edge.

I sat there, shaking, unable to move. There was blood sprayed all over my face to the point where it was dripping to the floor and pooling there with the rest of the blood…and Skeet. I heard a distant _thump_ and a bloodcurdling scream. The scream was followed by sirens and I heard several Security Drones whizzing up the stairs towards the scene of the crime. Giga let go of me and pushed the cloaking button before looking at me with a twinge of sympathy. Soon the emotion reverted to seriousness as the Security Drones swiftly made their way towards the ship. With the engines already on, Giga examined the controls. Fast red numbers shot upwards behind her eyes as she took in the information and pulled the lever to take off.

The Security Drones searched the rooftop, then shot up towards the ship, trying to stop us and bring us in under suspicion charges. Giga saw this and became angry, thinking of a quick plan.

We were almost to the edge of the atmosphere when she let go of the controls and buckled me in. I didn't object to her plan as she pulled a small lever that opened the floor. The gallons of Skeet's blood as well as the bottom half of him plummeted down to the surface of Irk. Skeet's lower half knocked down one of the drones, the blood washed away the others. A strong vacuuming wind whipped through the cockpit, sucking out the last of the drops. The floor closed and almost all traces of him were gone, except the stains on the ship and myself.

We were gaining on the edge of the atmosphere, where they scanned any oncoming ships. With the smell of thick sugars gone, I was able to focus again.

"Get out of my way," I sharply said to Giga. "I'm sick of this nonsense, I'm controlling this." She looked at me, confused. I just unbuckled myself and sat in front of Giga who was stepping on the control dash.

"Master?" Ignoring her, I picked her up and set her at my side.

"Hang on tight." I thrust back and shoved forward several levers, pressed the button marked 'Hyper Speed' and we sped through the red scanner that covered the planet. Giga just sat there staring at the thousands of stars shooting by with awe. "Giga." She snapped her head back to me at the sound of her name. "Take the control column and maneuver around planets when we slow down." She saluted and we switched spots in the cockpit.

I pushed the button to slowly come out of hyper speed and took out the UPS. _Hmm,_ I thought, trying to think back to what the coordinates of the "planet" were. _Aha! _I typed in the coordinates '7,940 ± 420 parsecs; 34-24-36.' I waited a second for it to calculate as I connected the ship to the UPS and told Giga to hit the 'Hyper Speed' button. The UPS hummed as it vibrated, alerting that it had found information on the planet.

"Eeaarrrthhh…?" I tried to pronounce the planet's name, not knowing if I had said it correctly or not.

"Correct," Giga said.

"Earth. In the solar system Sol," I read out loud. "Current status: no invasion/ life _is_ confirmed to be present. Great, I have something to conquer." I laughed, "I can't wait to see the Tallest's faces when I show them the planet of 'no one dares speak its name'." I mimicked Tallest Red's voice the best I could, while still making fun of his deep tone. "I can see it now! Tallest Purple saying; 'Gasp! It exists? I wasn't expecting that, uhh durrr'." I cracked up, unable to stop laughing my organ out.

Giga occasionally peeked over at me with a curious look on her face. "Master…." I didn't answer her, I just kept laughing until my sides hurt and the extent of my laughing brought tears to my eyes.

"He," I gasped, "he would-" I was laughing too hard to finish the sentence. After a while I sighed, wiping the tears from my eyes. An occasional giggle would slip in as I said, 'Giga, you would laugh too if you pictured it like I did. Oh, and if you were there to hear the Tallest assign me the fake mission, this would be hilarious."

She grinned a little before asking, "What is our designated mission?"

"First," I explained, "we land on the side of the planet that is currently night, where all of its inhabitance will most likely be on low guard. There, we will set up base and learn about the…_Earthanoid's_ habits and find a weak spot. There, we will tear it apart, leaving them completely vulnerable to our overcoming of the filthy planet and add it to the Irken's list of conquered planets." I shuttered at the word 'filthy,' just imagining the amounts of filth possible. My thoughts flashed back to the planet Dirt.

"Confirmed." The ship slowed almost to a stop in front of the planet 'Earth.' I was right, it looked filthy. On the day side, the planet was brown, green, and blue. On the night side, there was a grid of lights covering most of the land. At least the night reminded me of the night sky back on Devastas. Xid and I both used to stare at the city lights on one of Irk's moons where the lights outlined the oceans. Although, this ocean seemed to be darker in color and reflect the sky, there must have been a different chemical balance.

"Giga," I asked. "Where is the best geographical coordinates just outside of the Earthanoid's smallest well known city in the region marked 'North America'?" Red numbers scrolled upwards behind Giga's eyes again.

"Earth coordinates: latitude 42.934789; longitude -78.588022."

"Good." I entered the latitude and longitude into the ship and we swooped down and landed in something Giga called a 'forest.' I looked around; the forest was very thick with little creatures that ran around like 'squirrels' or the occasional 'deer.' _Eugh_, I thought. _What filthy creatures. _You could see the little insects that lived in their 'fur,' just hopping around, leaving behind more filth. I cringed at the sight of it.

I turned on the ship's cloaking device and told Giga, "Giga, go and find the best type of shelter to blend in with the surrounding forest. After you have a clear picture in and out, I want you to build it and build the base hidden underneath." I tossed her a small drilling machine with a screen that popped out. She saluted and used small rockets in her feet to shoot into the sky, and then swerved to the west.

I decided to find one of the Earthanoid's learning facilities. I walked down the abandoned streets reciting Irken knowledge out loud.

Suddenly, someone yelled a quiestion in a foreign language. I swerved around to see who it was and saw an Earthanoid about my height coming my way. If I had my PAK, it would have translated into Irken. The Earthanoid's pace quickened to a run towards me. Instinctively, I ran along the road into a much lit city to get away from him. To my horror, the entire city was swarming with the filthy beings.

I turned to see the being still chasing after me, but I had outrun him by several hundred 'feet.' I gritted my teeth and ran back towards him, jumping, and then landing on his head before he could get a good look at me. For the split second I was there on his head, I realized he was wearing a disguise. I landed after launching off of him and looked back at the rest of the Earthanoids. They were all the same, dressed in all different disguises. I stopped running away and walked towards the being that was now thrown on the ground. one oh his green pointed ears had fallen off and his 'hair' had fallen off to reveal thick brown hair underneath. He had dropped his septer, which had broken in half.

This planet was very easy to move on, its gravity being a fraction of that on Irk or Devastas; I could have taken that fall and got up fine. The Earthanoid, however, had several scrapes and bruises. I stopped again when he stood up and yelled something with a fist in the air. With my non-existent knowledge of the language, it sounded to me like a curse of some sort. Ignoring the Earthanoid, I ran towards the base, passing a couple of more Earthanoids in disguises.

About an Earth 'mile' later, I slowed to a walk where I rewound the events in my mind. There were two things I gained from fleeing the being; I will never flee something again, that just leads to more of them, and the destination I would return to in the morning was 'Hi-Skool.'


	11. First Day of School

When I returned to base, Giga had already built something called a 'cottage' or a 'cabin.' I praised her work and asked her, "What is the fastest possible way to gain knowledge on a language before dawn?"

"Use the pre-designated information gathering system."

"My PAK? I lost that a while back…."

"Negative, there are other means of using the ability you possess."

"The Negative Zone?"

"Affirmative. While in this 'Negative Zone' your state of being is reverted back as it was before; the opposite of the state now." It disturbed me that she knew more about my power than I did. I focused; using the best of my possible ability to gather strength as well as the Negative Zone. I opened my eyes and everything around me was the same. I looked down at myself and the stains of Skeet's blood was gone and my normal purple invader outfit was green; my skin a light purple. The colors negative of my own.

I felt pressure on my back as Giga downloaded all of her vast knowledge into my old PAK on my back; the information filling my mind. When the current amount of information was finished downloading I harbored an anxious feeling, aching to learn more. For the first time, I spoke in fluid English.

"We need disguises to blend into the rest of the hyoo-mans in this so-called 'Hi Skool'."

"Understood," said Giga. Her eyes projected a holographic 3-D image of several disguises. I swiped my hand across the hologram; selecting my human form. I came across one that looked the most innocent of them all. She had deep blue eyes and dirty-blonde hair that curled down to her shoulders. She wore thin glasses with a black rim and a thin black dress that molded to her thin form down to just below her waist. Tight blue stockings led to tall black boots with flat heels, chains were tightly wound into two or three circles that wound around the leg. Lastly, she had pale white skin that flawlessly covered her body.

"Excellent. Giga, choose your disguise. I'm thinking maybe a feline of some sort. Sly…and quick," I said. I flipped through the feline database, a majority were chocolate colored. Giga told me to stop on a jet black cat. "Excellent choice, Giga. Eject the information disk and we shall form our disguises."

A small disk shot out of her head and I caught it mid-air before turning on my heels and swiftly walking into the base. I opened the door to the fridge and then another door behind the stocked human food. Behind, there was an elevator leading to the main corridor in my base. From there, we would disguise ourselves and wait until morning.

In the morning, Giga and I started walking towards Hi-Skool. Our disguises had worked perfectly, there were only minor flaws. Our original eye colors showed beside the green eyes we had originally set.

With Giga at my side, we walked together down the rural streets into the city where some humans whispered to each other: "Who's the new girl?" Others just gawked as we walked by.

Giga stayed outside the window as I walked into one of the many rooms, marked 'Room Thirty-Too.' The thin ghastly teacher hissed at me as her dark being slithered my way like a shadow. Her face was pointed like a witch and there appeared to be no feet underneath her fog-like cloak. The name tag on her desk read 'Mrs. Bitters.'

"Who the frig are you and why are you interrupting the beginning of my class?" Her voice was a hiss a yell at the same time.

I spoke, trying not to spit at her revolting attitude, and smiled; "I'm Ziff, the new student. I had assumed the principle had informed you about my first day."

She growled and floated to the center of the room, gesturing for me to follow. As I entered the class, my attention was automatically shifted to one earth child that had the largest head I had ever seen. It was the size of a hippo, that head. The look on his face was priceless, the further I stepped into the room the wider his eyes grew. His mouth was agape in awe.

My entertainment was cut short when the teacher snapped, "Introduce yourself and then sit your tiny ass in the empty seat next to Dib. _I don't want to hear another friggin word out of your smart-ass mouth again, do – you - understand?" _ I nodded after wincing at her bat-like screech and turned to the class.

"I'm Ziff, there's no need to pay much attention to me, I'm quite boring. So just ignore me and we'll all get along just fine."

"Take your seat," snapped Mrs. Bitters. I took my seat next to the big-headed Dib; he was still staring at me, but less in awe, more a stare of sympathy. "Okay, idiots, what did we learn yesterday in this _miserable_ class?"

The class went on to review the 'Undead Wars of the Late 2000's' when Dib whispered to me. "I'm sorry about Mrs. Bitters. If it makes you feel any better, she has a sister that teaches in the elementary school. You're lucky you didn't have to sit through both of the Bitters sisters."

I was going to respond when Mrs. Bitters screeched, "_Shit! _I forgot to do the friggin attendance!" She took a sheet and started yelling out names. They were strange names like, 'Old Kid' or 'The Letter M.' I called out 'present' when she called my name. I was surprised it was on there that quick, I had just joined class. Shivers shot up my spine when she called out the name 'Zim' before slamming the paper down and it disintegrated into her desk.

I looked to where I heard a sigh and a 'here,' over near the door. It was him, the Irken that had single-handedly ruined my life on Irk. He was just sitting there. Just sitting there, like he didn't care that you could see through his disguise, or that he was a planet completely off of the map. He was acting like most of the teenagers I'd seen so far, like he knew it was happening, but couldn't care less.

He hadn't grown much, either. From what I could remember, he was only about a foot or so taller than the day he stood across from me during the Great Assigning. I had grown at least two. He was shortest in the class by at least a yard.

I suddenly thought back to the destruction of Irk. I thought Skeet and I were the only survivors, but Skeet could never have piloted the Battle Mech.

He was the one who had killed everyone on Irk.


	12. Silly Little Humans

**A/N Geez, sorry it's been _forever,_ but I kindof... forgot... to announce my haitus(to those who care -_-') but, finals were up and with the rest of school and stuff...ah, who cares! I was gone and now I'm back! Review please, I hope I haven't gotten rusty...Enjoy! Oh, and thanks to Daisy's Dead Rose for supporting this!**

I swore, then and there, that the occurrence the first half of the day would not affect my mission. It was lunchtime and Dib invited me to sit next to me all alone at a table in the corner.

"Usually I sit here alone, but you haven't seen my 'crazy' side yet," he said, using air quotes.

"Your what?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. "Hey, I saw you look at Zim during attendance. Do you know him? If not, I could warn you about him." Dib glared at Zim across the cafeteria, poking the 'food' Dib warned me not to eat.

"Yeah, I know him," I said. "Although, when I knew him, he was much more…" I searched for the right word.

"Excitable? Annoying? Crazy?"

"Yes, and destructive. A destructive little—"

He cut me off, "_Alien_?"

"You_ know?"_ I covered my mouth before I could blurt out any more information. It was too late.

"_You_ know?" He jumped up onto the table, knocking over the grey sludge, barley missing me with it. "I'm not alone!" He shouted across the cafeteria, attracting the attention of the other students. He froze in the middle of his victory dance and turned his head towards me, eyes accusing and angry. He hopped down and stood on the seat. He harshly poked me in the chest accusingly. "Who hired you? Was it Gaz?"

"No. I don't even know this 'Gaz' you speak of," I said, rubbing the spot he poked.

"Then what? Were you a guinea pig in a radiation experiment? How many times where you dropped on your head as a baby?" My antenna picked up footsteps behind me. I looked back to see Zim angrily stomping in our direction, rolling up his sleeves.

I turned back to Dib, he was staring at Zim, wearing the same angry grimace. "What do you want, Zim? I'm in the middle of something."

"Zim has no business with you, stink worm. I wish to talk alone with the new filth."

"And what if I don't let you, Zim? What'll you do, spit venomous fluids at me? I was talking to her first!" Zim growled and jumped at Dib, slamming him down onto the stained tile floor. They wrestled, clawing, hitting and cursing at each other.

Ignoring them, I got up and walked to an empty table on the other side of the room.

"Hey, new chick." I looked up to see a tall purple-haired girl standing at the end of the table, hands on hips. "You're in my seat."

"It doesn't have your name on it."

She cracked her knuckles and a crowd started to form around her. "Get…out…of…my…SEAT!" She sent a fist my way and I stopped it with my hand before it could make contact with my face. With a growl, she recoiled and swung again. This time, I caught it, and didn't let go. There were murmurs in the crowd as I stood up to face my opponent.

"I was here first." On that note, I twisted her arm into an un-natural position until she followed, grunting in pain. I whispered in her ear, "I suggest you find your own seat…and never mess with me again, got it?" I released her hand and she weaved through the crowd, brimming with rage.

"Wow…," one boy said, amazed. "No one has ever beaten Gaz in a fight before!"

The crowd slowly receded as I sat back down, eyeing down their filthy faces. That unrealistically large-headed boy was the only on e left standing in front of me. He was covered in bruises and scratches from his fight with Zim.

"You beat up my sister?" A look of disappointment and fear flickered on and off his face. "How?"

"I was defending myself against her hot-headed stupidity." I looked him in his filthy brown eyes. "Her rage made her weaker than me." Simple. True. "What happened to Zim?"

As if on queue, Zim tackled Dib out of thin air. "Zim isn't finished with you yet, Dib-stink!" Ignoring them, I was out of the cafeteria just before the bell rung.

* * *

><p>Around eleven o'clock at night, I was in the middle of working on a doomsday weapon when I was interrupted by the doorbell. I sighed and put down my tools, heading upstairs. "Computer, lock down all entrances to and from the lab…DOOPH!" I groaned and rubbed my head after smashing it full speed into the locked hatch. "<em>After <em>I get out!" The hatch opened quickly and closed behind Giga and I as we made our way to the door, our holographic disguises forming into view.

"Ziff!"

"Yes, Dib?" Giga wound in and around my feet.

"Um…"

"How did you find my house?" Giga hopped out of the house and sat next to Dib, examining him.

"Um…I…uh…" He slapped himself. "I was actually looking for Zim. He ran out here and I figured he was hiding -"

"No, Dib." Giga padded back into the house.

"Oh, ok…are you busy-"

"Yes." I slammed the door in his face and rushed back to my lab. There is no way in hell this boy is going to see my base, or what was lurking inside it.

**A/N Ok, once again, hope I haven't gotten rusty, and this chapter is too short for my liking, only 900-some words. :I **


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